Had a love affair with Nina in the back of my Cortina

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts.

04/03/79 : New Boots And Panties!! - Ian Dury


Our second visit with Ian this year and this is the one he's best known for - but I've never listened to it. I reckon I know what it's going to sound like though..

Yeah, it sounds (unsurprisingly) like Ian Dury. It's fair to say his singing voice isn't exactly what you'd consider to be classically beautiful, but it fits in well with the general "everyman" vibe. The lyrics are quite amusing and clever whilst still being very relatable and the musicianship has more variety and is a lot tighter than I was expecting - just because the finished product isn't to be taking too seriously doesn't mean the creative process shouldn't be taken seriously. I enjoyed this, particularly liking "Billericay Dickie" and "Blockheads" - I'm glad I finally caught up with it, but I'm intrigued by the two exclamation marks in the title!! I also have to say I suspect Blur had been listening to some Ian Dury when they wrote "Parklife".

We're at #9 in the charts this week on his tenth week of a 27 week run, which was the fourth run out of eight separate runs between '77 and '79 covering 89 weeks in total, with a 47 week run for most of '78 being the longest and #5 in its 59th week being as high as it got - it did well! The top five this week were Blondie, Bee Gees, Barry Manilow, Elvis Costello and a Cliff Richard/Shadows reunion concert album (really?) with the highest new entry being a live album from The Stranglers (#7).

Wikipedia has more than I was expecting on the album (198 milliPeppers) and it tells us it's his debut album and "the songs are frequently ribald and profane, but also contain humour and affection for his characters", which is a very Wikipediaesque sentence, but it's also accurate. The title refers to Ian's preference for buying second-hand clothes, with only his "boots and panties" being bought new (I'm not sure I'd be that keen on second-hand socks) and the kid on the album cover is Baxter Dury, Ian's son (complete with a fine set of flares). 

The album was recorded before they had a record deal and they had issues in getting a label interested, but in the end Stiff took a punt on it and things worked out well. Critically, it was very well received and continues to be warmly regarded as an accurate portrayal of 70s London/Essex life. Commercially, it did well with sales driven here for a long period due to the success of the singles "What a Waste", "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" and "Reasons to Be Cheerful, Part 3" - none of which are on any album. It also did well in Australia (#7) and New Zealand (#13). 

discogs.com tells you can pick up a decent version for three quid, but if you want a Japanese promo version then you're going to have to pay the huge amount of £1,146.47 which, somewhat surprisingly, makes this the most expensive album we've seen this year - I don't think anyone saw that coming! I wouldn't say it's quite worth that kinda money, but I did enjoy this - it feels nicely of its time but has dated well and I'm sure it brings back fond memories of misspent youth to many. 

25/02/79 - Really rather dull
11/03/79 - Surprisingly tolerable

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